Field of Invention
This invention relates to an improved cracking device, and more specifically to a new nutcracker which is adjustable to prevent the scattering of shells and hulls and to eliminate smashing the kernel of nuts and pinching fingers in the cracking operation.
Prior Art
Various non-adjustable nutcrackers capable of cracking nuts of different sizes and shapes are known in the art and are shown in, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 509,412 (Lee), U.S. Pat. No. 461,377 (Law), U.S. Pat. No. 454,036 (Tse) and others. There are also nutcrackers that are adjustable to accommodate nuts of various sizes and shapes in the art and are shown, for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,825 (Papalardo), U.S. Pat. No. 3,148,718 (Plott), U.S. Pat. No. 2,758,622 (Blatt), U.S. Pat. No. 2,444,634 (Daniel), U.S. Pat. No. 2,031,189 (Stromberg), U.S. Pat. No. 1,938,733 (Walling), U.S. Pat. No. 1,281,575 (Ives), and others. The design of all these prior art cracking devices is such that they generally are prone to causing the scattering of shells and hulls and smashing the kernel of nuts into small pieces in the cracking operation, because none of them has the capability of controlling the pressure over the nut in a cracking operation. Due to the lack of mechanism to control the pressure, improper use of some of the existing nutcrackers may result in pinching one's finger(s) when one attempts to squeeze too hard or put one's finger(s) in between the handles either inadvertently or in an attempt to obtain the optimum pressure in the cracking operation.
There is a nutcracker probably capable of limiting the scattering of shells and hulls known in the art and is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,804,111 (Burchett). But the Burchett patented cracking device does not solve the problem of smashing the kernel of nuts. Additionally, as its positioning screw is pressed directly against nut shell or hulls, it is prone to damages with use due to the direct pressure the screw surface receives in the cracking operation. Further, as the Burchett cracking device has a crushing chamber designed to house round-shaped nuts, other oddly-shaped nuts as well as other hard-shelled edibles such as lobster or crab claws will not fit into the chamber, as a result, the utility of the Burchett cracking device is limited.